vocal layering...how to do?
 

Can anyone give some tips on how to create vocal layering, creating a "digital choir"?

I'm not sure what to use with (currently am using audacity). I know there's a way, or so I've heard, to duplicate a track with one person (or more) singing, then tweak it just enough to make it sound different, then repeat the process. I'm working on singing background vocals to some material for fun and was wondering how to do this? The only way I know how is to record the vocal over the music, save as a new file, then repeat the process. This leaves the music and vocals sounding not as neat and smooth as possible, and leaves no room for error.

Help!

Thanx :)

There are vocal harmonizers out there that are supposed to do just that, but I have never felt like risking the money to see how effective they are.

I use an audio editing program called Goldwave. Goldwave will allow you to mix any .WAV audio files you wish, and accomplish what you want. You could sing solo and mix in other files of yourself wherever you want to, if not for the full song.

If you didn't want to sing the song over several times in different keys, I'd imagine you could make several tracks changing the track each time with Keyrite, save them, and mix them......A bit of work, but worth it.

I just finished adding real recordings of rain and thunderstorms as background to some tracks of me singing. Sounds kinda neat. Got the idea years ago when Mystic Moods orchestra did the same thing to a couple of instrumental albums.

Hope this helps.

George

Forget about using Keyrite to create the additional voice tracks. They distort too much. Started wondering about the "Chipmunk" effect, and it was present. Looks like each vocal harmonic would have to be sung individually , and then mixed with the instrumental track.

George

I know what you mean about keyrite. The problem pretty much exists anytime you alter the key with any software, although not as much. For instance when I vocal layered the hard way, I did try lowering the key of the music so I could reach the notes easier for part of the harmony vocals, then raising the new file back to the original key for when I did other parts, but as you said there is distortion, not to mention a LOT of hiss. I used Pacemaker, a plugin for Winamp.

George and Lvanett are right. Keyrite or other inexpensive key changers are not designed to key shift vocals, only music. You're looking at $1,000 up products that provide vocal key changing with quality. At $39.95 for Keychange for Karaoke users, we didn't invest the $50,000 or so to get vocals corrected also. No payback economically... :s :e

I should have added I was in no way criticizing Keyrite. I got what I expected, that's why I tested it, suspecting I may have given out some bum advice when I suggested using it in my first post.:e

George

Oh I know. :) :) Keyrite is still useful for changing keys on instrumental only songs. I had to lower one song by about 6 notes and even tho there is the distortion, I can live with it. The resulting new file created by Keyrite sounded better in the long run than with other software I tried. :)

No worries here. I know there IS a way to alter duplicated files with the same lead vocal to make them sound a little different, but either nobody here knows or doesn't wish to share. I really would like to find out, it'd save me some time and hassle!

update
 

OK, so for now I am trying to simply record the vocals one at a time. I don't mind doing that. However, even by doing it that way, they sound so much alike that in spots they simply sound like one amplified voice. So does anyone know how I can correct that? I've been trying to figure out what to do....perhaps change pronunciation of certain words? Make the vocals sound breathier or tinnier? Any help would be welcomed! :)

If you're able to sing harmony(which I don't), you might try that on the additional tracks , adding echo to the extra tracks to fill them out more.

Dunno, just brainstorming

I do sing harmony. I've done 2 and 3 part harmony. I've done BGVs in styles like Wilson Phillips, and most recently, Point Of Grace (Christian contemporary female group).

try altering the pan for each voice, perhaps eq'ing each voice differently. I do this for duets...